Wednesday, November 3, 2004
eBay "Battery Replacement" Scam?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 01:00 PM
I'm searching for a battery for an iPAQ 5450 that I lent to a friend, so naturally I turned to the worlds biggest marketplace: eBay. I found several listings, but the Buy It Now prices seemed painfully high at $90+ USD. I found one for $45 USD, but was confused by the $25 charge for shipping and labour. Once I read the full description I realized what this guy was doing:
"This is for a battery replacement service. A brand new battery will be $45.00 plus the $25.00 for labor and shipping costs. This includes the models 5450 and the 5455. It is the buyers responsibility to ship the item to me. I give a 30 day warranty with all of my repairs. If I can not fix the item, I will return the item back to you free of charge and will also give a complete refund."
Given that the iPAQ 5000 series has a user-replaceable battery that you pop out and pop back in, I can't see this as anything other than a scam to trick confused Pocket PC users into paying for a "service" they don't need. Unbelievable! 8O
By the way, if anyone happens to have an iPAQ 5450 battery they'd be willing to sell to me cheap, let me know. ;-)
"This is for a battery replacement service. A brand new battery will be $45.00 plus the $25.00 for labor and shipping costs. This includes the models 5450 and the 5455. It is the buyers responsibility to ship the item to me. I give a 30 day warranty with all of my repairs. If I can not fix the item, I will return the item back to you free of charge and will also give a complete refund."
Given that the iPAQ 5000 series has a user-replaceable battery that you pop out and pop back in, I can't see this as anything other than a scam to trick confused Pocket PC users into paying for a "service" they don't need. Unbelievable! 8O
By the way, if anyone happens to have an iPAQ 5450 battery they'd be willing to sell to me cheap, let me know. ;-)
